Failure To Launch: First Samsung Tizen Smartphone A No-Show On Release Day

The wait continues for Samsung’s homemade Tizen operating system on smartphones as Samsung held off on the release of the Samsung Z.

Samsung was supposed to release the new smartphone to developers at a launch event in Moscow Wednesday, but instead said in a statement, “The smartphone will appear on the Russian market later, when we can offer our users [the] fullest portfolio of applications.”

With Samsung the top vendor of Android-based devices, smartphones based on the Tizen OS could have major implications on other Android smartphone makers, including Google most of all.

The delayed release date also puts off the development of an app ecosystem for Tizen that will compete with the ecosystems for Apple iOS or even Windows Phone and Amazon.

“You don’t want too many different operating systems out there. If it’s easy for developers to build for, then it’s a good thing for developers to have another OS to work with. But, for example, not a lot of developers are building apps for BlackBerry,” said Steven Kantorowitz, president of CelPro Associates, a Samsung partner based in New York. “It’s hard to speculate, but with Apple coming out with the iPhone 6 later this year, I don’t think Samsung wants any bad publicity right now. “

This marks the second time Samsung has scrapped the launch date of a Tizen smartphone. The first was earlier this year in Japan, but those plans were scrapped days before the device was set to hit the market.

“I’m not surprised Samsung did this because they’ve got to get it right the first time,” said David Felton, founder of Canaan Technology, a solution provider based in Norwalk, Conn. “They are taking on Apple iOS and Android. If it isn’t right, critics will say, ‘It’s dead on arrival.’ BlackBerry delayed the launch of their OS several times and no one can say it isn’t solid. It’s a calculated risk. You take a marketing black eye but you get it right for launch.

“Part of the big disappointment is the anticipation,” Felton said. “Samsung directly takes on Apple iOS. They’ve always been nipping at each other’s ankles. Samsung’s built-in handicap is that they run on Google’s Android. So if Samsung has its own product, they can take on Apple because they are building the hardware and the software. You can only customize Android so far.”